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Motorola waves in gesture-sensitive phone

Shake to activate

In a bullish attempt to shake up the mobile phone market, Motorola has launched a gesture-sensitive handset you must shake, rattle and – possibly – roll to operate.

Motorola's W7: shake it to make it work

The Moto W7 Active Edition is described as “a motion-enabled 3G mobile” designed for anyone after a "moving” – if you’ll pardon the pun – phone experience.

Fitted with an accelerometer, the W7 senses your body’s motions, orientations and hand gestures to perform tasks. For example, you can silence an incoming call by flipping the phone over or shake it twice to launch your favourite application.

The idea’s bound to appeal to some, but could turn out to be more of a hindrance than a help. Just imagine what could happen if you’d had one too many and tried to shake the phone to launch its SMS app.

Also equipped with 3G and a 2Mp camera

Flicks can be used to cycle through images in your photo library and turning the phone over will also snooze the alarm clock. An integrated pedometer can even be used to record your daily exercise.

A 2Mp camera’s built-in for snapping still images and a second user-facing camera’s on-board for making video calls. Images are displayed on its 2.2in, 320 x 240 screen and stored onto Micro SD cards of up to 8GB – although one isn’t included.

Motorola’s W7 will be available in two colour options – “Liquorice” and “Alpine White” – and will launch during Q2. A price hasn’t been released. ®